KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry's key performance indicators (KPIs) for the first 100 days focus on efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19, improve the healthcare system and guide Malaysians into the endemic phase.
"As the main ministry in the war against Covid-19, we will be the people's focus in the next 100 days. With the opening up of more economic and social sectors soon, the Health Ministry is responsible for ensuring that the public continues to observe the new norms," Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said in an interview.
He said vaccination coverage remained the priority and the ministry would ensure vaccine supply was enough, with plans to fully inoculate at least 80 per cent of the country's adult population within the 100 days.
He said another goal was to begin Covid-19 vaccination for children aged 12 to 17 and get most of them fully immunised before the start of school next year.
"The target (percentage of children to be vaccinated) will be announced based on vaccine supply. We will start administering the vaccine to teenagers, beginning in Sarawak as the state has reached the threshold value of 80 per cent."
He said the ministry aimed to reduce the number of Covid-19 beds in hospitals to less than 50 per cent and for Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, less than 70 per cent, as these are proxy indicators for the rate of Categories 4 and 5 Covid-19 patients.
He said field ICUs would be deployed to states facing a shortage of ICU beds and initiatives would be implemented to curb the rise in brought-in-dead cases from 21 per cent now to less than 15 per cent in 100 days.
He said the ministry was urgently working on expanding the Virtual Covid-19 Assessment Centre to Kelantan, Melaka, Penang, Johor and Perak.
He said the KPIs for the ministry's first 100 days would focus on preparing people to transition to an endemic phase.
The ministry, he said, would work with the National Security Council, Finance Ministry and Communications and Multimedia Ministry to develop simpler, clearer standard operating procedures (SOP), especially for the endemic phase, based on global best practices.
He said the SOP, expected to be released by the end of the month, would include minimum requirements for good ventilation in public buildings.
"The existing SOP is too sectoral and specific, which makes it complicated. We need to make it applicable across sectors with only a small list of clear SOP."
Khairy said at least 14 more self-test kits, in addition to the existing 14 kits, would be approved by the Medical Devices Authority, which will give people more choices and hopefully drive down prices.
"Free or subsidised test kits will be made available to vulnerable groups and the B40 community."
He said the ministry would announce its stand and policy on booster doses of vaccine, which would include whether a mix-and-match system would be used.
Clinical results for the Ivermectin Treatment Efficacy in Covid-19 High-Risk Patient study would also be released within the ministry's first 100 days, he said, hoping to put an end to the issue.
Within 100 days, the ministry will also launch the Cough App (Beta version) to detect Covid-19.
To improve transparency, he said, granular data on Covid-19 infections would be shared on GitHub Open Source within 24 hours of being announced.
"This is to gain the trust and confidence of the public in our reporting on the pandemic and for the people to make informed decisions in the endemic phase.
"However, any data that we feel could be compromised or monetised will not be made public."
He said the ministry was working on rapidly improving the find, test, trace, isolate and support (FTTIS) system, with more automated contact tracing, as well as enhancing MySejahtera's functions, such as one that allows the public to report Long Covid symptoms.
"The ministry will announce the National Testing and Tracing Policy in the endemic phase so that we are clear going into the new normal. This includes concerns about when one needs to get tested and if a person is found to be positive in the endemic phase, what is the process for contact tracing and isolation."
Khairy said to boost primary healthcare services for non-Covid-19 patients, tele-consultation services would be increased by 30 per cent, with sessions to be held in 40 health clinics, and remote consultations would be enabled.
On elective surgeries postponed due to the pandemic, he said the backlog would be reduced by 20 per cent in 100 days by outsourcing surgeries to private hospitals.
Khairy announced plans to improve psychosocial support services to manage mental health issues by increasing support capacity by 10 per cent and increasing the number of non-governmental organisations involved in mental health advocacy from 20 to 40.
He pledged to seek the best solution for the contract doctors issue.
"There are details that I do not want to announce yet because they are still in discussion with the treasury and the Public Service Department.
"But in 100 days, insyaAllah, we will come to a good solution for this contract doctors issue.
"Frontliners can contact me via menteri@moh.gov.my to report any concerns they face in the line of duty, even anonymously, to enable open communication."
He said while the ministry was committed to opening up more economic and social sectors responsibly soon, it was also important to reduce the number of infections and prevent new variants from entering the country.
On vaccination rates that have exceeded 100 per cent in some areas, he said it was due to undocumented foreigners, underestimation of the population size and migration that were not reflected in the statistics.
"There are districts with 80 per cent coverage, but they said everyone has been vaccinated.
"The Department of Statistics Malaysia did not get to conduct a census last year, so we don't know how deep the black hole is, but we are confident we have enough vaccines' supply to cover the so-called population underestimation."